Provence: Getting there & around

Air France is the leading carrier on domestic routes, linking Bordeaux, Brest, Clermont-Ferrand, Lille, Lyon, Metz-Nancy, Mulhouse, Nantes, Strasbourg and Toulouse with Avignon, Nice, Nîmes, Marseille and Toulon.

No-frills airline easyJet has lots of cheap fares from Paris Orly to Marseille and Nice.

Corsica is served by regular CCM Airlines flights, run in conjunction with Air France, from Nice and Marseille to Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi and Figari.

Eurolines (www.eurolines.com) is an association of companies forming Europe's largest international bus network. It links Provençal cities such as Nice, Marseille and Avignon with points all over western and central Europe, Scandinavia and Morocco. Most buses operate daily in summer and several times a week in winter; advance ticket purchases are necessary.

Paris has connections to cities all over Europe. Within the region, Nice is the major hub, sitting on the busy Barcelona-Rome train line. Day and overnight trains run in both directions. There are also direct train services between Nice and Milan.

Provence - particularly the Lubéron - is an eminently cyclable region, thanks to its extensive network of inland back roads with relatively light traffic. On the coast there are several excellent cycle paths.

One of the most relaxing ways to see the region is to rent a houseboat and cruise along the Camargue's canals and rivers. Boats usually accommodate two to 12 passengers and can be rented on a weekly basis. Anyone over 18 can pilot a river boat without a licence: learning the ropes takes about half an hour. A plethora of boats ply the waters from the shores of the Côte d'Azur to its various offshore islands.

Services and routes are extremely limited in rural areas. Bus services are more efficient between towns served by only a few trains (or none at all); for example, there are several daily trains between Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, but buses speed between the two towns approximately every 30min. Autocars (regional buses) are operated by a muddling host of different bus companies, which usually have an office at the gare routière (bus station) in the cities they serve. One company generally sells tickets for all the buses operating from the same station.

Having your own wheels is vital to discover the region's least touched backwaters. Numerous treasures tucked in Haute- Provence's nooks and crannies are impossible to uncover by public transport. Except in the traffic-plagued high season, it's easy to drive on the Côte d'Azur.

The SNCF's regional rail network in Provence, served by TER (www.ter-sncf.com/paca), is comfortable and efficient. It comprises two routes: one that follows the coast (disappearing inland for the stretch between Hyères and St-Raphaël) and another that traverses the interior, running from Marseille through Aix-en-Provence, Manosque and Sisteron before leaving the region northwards. There's also a narrow-gauge railway linking Nice with Digne-les-Bains in Haute-Provence.